AUSTIN, TX. - He may have been a wartime editor during the recently concluded battle for votes that ended in a tie
between Bush Watch and Bartcop in the "Partisan Warfare" category of About.com's political comedy poll, but Editor
Jerry Politex was hardly solemn during a meeting at Bush Watch headquarters with a handful of reporters last week,
days after he threw out the first pitch of a Round Rock Express game at Dell Stadium.

"He said, `I didn't know then that Round Rockers could wave with all of their fingers!' " recalled Roy Blabb,
a Missouri reporter who is close to Mr. Politex.

"This was serious business," Mr. Blabb said of the burdens on the editor, "but he has definitely not lost his sense of humor."

While he still cannot resist a joke or two (even ribald ones), dozens of friends and advisers who have spent time
with Mr. Politex said in interviews that during the duration of the voting at About.com  he conducted himself far
more seriously than he had before.

Friends say that while Mr. Politex usually appears upbeat - and is trying to convey a sense of normality - the Bartcop
voting attacks and their campaign aftermath have weighed on the editor far more than the lowest moments of his
Bush Watch coverage of the grueling presidential campaign between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

"It's aged the hell out of him," said reporter Garry Pundit, who for years has been close to Mr. Politex.
"Look at his hair. Look at the lines on his face. It's incredible, the toll. He's the only guy in history who had to
take lessons to get that grin off his face. He's a jokester. But right now he's probably consciously trying to avoid
that stuff. That would weigh on you enormously."

Describing the demands on Mr. Politex as unimaginable during the campaign, he went on to say, "Good grief. He went
to bed at night not knowing when the next Bartcop partisan would go into a virtual polling booth at About.com with lunch, dinner, and a change of underware, and not come out until the blisters on his voting hand turn to callouses.

Given the solemnity of the voting for the best "Partisan Warfare" site on the web, several of Mr.Politex's friends say,
he had restrained his natural jocularity but also sought a balance so as not to set too gloomy a tone. Some of Mr. Politex's friends say his strength lies in what he was often ridiculed for during his Bush Watch coverage of the Gore-Bush campaign: ignoring the facts and not delving into the big picture. "My personal view is that complexity in an editor is not a helpful thing," Blabb said, "and certainly not a helpful thing in a voting crisis."

Despite the view - not universally shared by his friends - that Mr. Politex has aged visibly, he has been working out even
more rigorously since the voting campaign ended last week.

"The fact that he's running a thirty-seven-minute mile now attests to the discipline he's bringing to his whole life right now,"
said Mark Miwords, Mr. Politex's chief consultant during the comedy campaign. "He has more snap, more energy,
more focus." (Before last week, Mr. Miwords said, Mr. Politex was 27 to 30 seconds slower.)

Some of Mr. Politex's oldest friends say they regret that they have not heard from the Bush Watch editor since the
comedy voting war. But, they insist, they understand.

"He doesn't write; he doesn't call," said a tongue-in-cheek Mahatma Kane Jeeves, who has known Mr. Politex since
junior high school. "But somebody described him as the least neurotic person on the planet, and I think that's true.
In terms of the big picture he has a sense of buoyancy, of calm, of focus, which came in handy in a situation like this
where it had been very easy to get confused and scared under the Bartcop avalanche of votes."